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Mission Update

Preparing the “kick” for Metop-B’s Soyuz launch by the Starsem affiliate of Arianespace

April 11, 2012 – Soyuz Flight ST25

The Fregat M upper stage for Starsem’s Soyuz launch of the Metop-B weather satellite is undergoing its checkout in preparation for a May 23 liftoff from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Arianespace affiliate company’s 25th commercial mission.

Built by Russia’s Lavochkin Research and Production Association, the Fregat M stage is an autonomous and highly flexible orbital vehicle that can be restarted up to 20 times in flight – enabling it to carry out complex mission profiles. 

For Starsem’s upcoming flight, Fregat will place Metop-B into polar orbit, joining the nearly identical Metop-A spacecraft – which was launched in October 2006 by Starsem on another Soyuz mission from Baikonur Cosmodrome.

A total of three Metop-series spacecraft are being developed as a joint undertaking between the European Space Agency and EUMETSAT (the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), providing continuous weather observations until 2020.

The upcoming Starsem launch will use a Soyuz 2 modernized version of Russia’s medium-lift workhorse launcher, which also is in service with Arianespace at the Spaceport in French Guiana.

• Related links:
  Lavochkin Research and Production Association Lavochkin Research and Production Association
  European Space Agency    
  EUMETSAT